How to Learn the Ways of Online Chess

How to Learn the Ways of Online Chess

Chess is one of the most strategic free online games you can play now. Most games involve a portion of luck somewhere. Chess, however, requires nothing but mental fortitude and an intense strategy or two.

To master chess, whether in person or online, you’d need to study hundreds of books and plays tens of thousands of games. Even after doing that, you may still find that someone else destroys you in a match.

Fortunately, our goal is not for you to become a grandmaster chess player overnight! The goal is to improve your online chess skills to outwit your fellow human opponents. There are many things to keep in mind when playing chess online rather than in person. I’m going to assume that you already know the basics of how to move chess pieces. If you do not, you may wish to learn that first.

Regardless, the purpose of this guide is to help you recognize the strategic advantages of playing online chess. Let’s get started, shall we?

Here’s a basic online chess board

Your Opponent Can’t Read Your Expression

When I play live chess, the first thing I do is observe my opponent from head to toe. I’ll examine his/her demeanor, attitude, sitting position, etc. All of these things help me to get a read on what kind of a player they are likely to be. The details of their person will alert me to whether they’re a defensive, aggressive, or passive opponent. Using this knowledge, I can plan my strategy accordingly.

Your online opponent may wish to do the same thing. If there is a chat option, you can use this to your advantage by throwing them off. For example, if you tend to be an aggressive player, (meaning you attack and trade pieces, not that you’re a mean person!), you can use the chat and behave unlike yourself in it. Doing so may just convince your opponent that you’re a defensive player and they might start to set up an aggressive play. When they do so, it will be much easier for you to turn the tables and initiate your own aggressive play first, as they won’t be expecting you to do anything until halfway through the game!

Some online chess boards are 3D

Use What You have to Read Your Opponent Anyway

You may not be able to see your opponent, but you can still determine the kind of player you’re facing by their play style. Pay attention to how quickly they move their pieces as well as where they move to. The two basic kinds of a chess player are those who take their sweet time preplanning every single move, (hi there), and those who react incredibly fast to throw off their opponent, then spend their opponent’s turn preparing their next possible five or six moves.

You should be able to tell if your opponent is thinking far ahead or is just living in the moment by what they do. If they are not planning ahead, you’ve got a huge advantage. Try to anticipate the ambitious moves they may make and prepare a counter attack for those moves. Trust me when I tell you that people who don’t plan ahead make highly predictable moves! This makes playing chess as one of the funniest top best games on the PC's browser you should check out now, thanks to these people!

Nothing beats the feel of a real chess board

Set Up a Real Board

I don’t know about you, but I make all kinds of incredibly stupid mistakes when playing chess online. In the end, I’ve resorted to setting up a live board next to me when I play. Whenever my opponent or I make a move, I move the piece on the real board as well. I then plan my strategy on the board, (in my head so as not to disturb the positions), and make my move once I’m confident that I haven’t overlooked anything.

I’m not certain what it is, but there’s something about a flat chessboard on a screen that messes with people’s heads. Moves and maneuvers that should be obvious, especially to those of us with experience, are overlooked. I played a game against someone who’d been playing for less than a year and almost lost because of this!

Can you see the carnage that is about to happen?

Prank the Pranksters!

Unfortunately, some nasty people prank you with online chess by using a computer program on their phone or another device to, essentially, play for them! Obviously, doing so is incredibly unfair and simply not fun at all! Fortunately, there is a way to stop them.

You may not pick up on it immediately, but pranksters are quite obvious when you start off a game. They make their moves after almost an exact period of time as that is how long it takes for the AI to move on their other device. On top of that, an AI’s movements are predictable even if they’re almost impossible to defeat. (Some grandmasters can use the ‘human touch’ to trick an AI and beat it).

Anyone up to four games at once?

If you start to notice someone is using an AI in your game, pull out your own device and do the same thing! Now, two AIs are playing against each other. Most likely, the game will end in a draw, and your opponent will either be amazed that you managed to draw or angry that you pranked him or her back. Either way, you should consider that a won game!

Now, I’m not ancient, but when I was learning chess, we didn’t even have an AI to practice with yet! I had practiced with my brother. Luckily for me, the two of us were evenly matched at a young age, so I was able to learn quite a lot back then while most people were struggling to find an opponent!

The wonders of technology have freed you from that need, so don’t take your online games no download needed for granted! Get on out there and win some online chess games. Check out some strategy guides while you’re at it if you really want to up your game.

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